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The historic move stunned Roman Catholics — the last time a Pope resigned was in 1415. It’s a revolutionary act by a conservative pope steeped in tradition, one that sets a precedent and changes the dynamics for the election of Benedict’s successor.

In his bombshell announcement Monday, Benedict, 85, said he’s too old and weak to carry on. Speaking in Latin, he made clear the papacy is for men physically and mentally fit. In the past few months, he said his strength deteriorated “to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.”

“For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of St. Peter,” the Pope said, adding he would step down Feb. 28. A conclave of cardinals will be called to elect a new pope before Easter, which falls on March 31.

“It was just quite a shock,” Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, told reporters Monday. “We don’t have any idea how one deals with this.”

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As the news sank in, most observers applauded Benedict for a courageous act. It spares the Catholic Church a possible repeat of the final years of Pope John Paul II, whose poor health, many believe, left the church adrift.

“The great fear is that you get a pope who starts to suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s,” said Rev. Tom Reese, a theologian at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. “That would be a disaster. We have no way of dealing with that in the church today.”

The church, Reese added, long feared setting a resignation precedent: If a pope could resign for age or health reasons, he might be pushed to resign for other reasons.

Some saw the Pope’s emphasis on the need for physical strength as opening the door for a much younger successor to be chosen. Rev. Gilles Routhier, a theologian at Laval University in Quebec City, said the precedent set by the resignation reassures cardinals that a younger man can be chosen without necessarily triggering a decades-long reign.

“It’s a liberating decision,” Gauthier said. “The church is no longer condemned to being governed by someone until death.”

Rev. Tom Rosica, the Toronto member of a papal council that advises the pope on communications, called the decision “a great liberal gesture.”

“It’s an extremely positive thing he’s done for the church,” Rosica said. But he added that questions remain about the role of a retired pope. He noted the church already asks bishops to resign at age 75. “It’s a bit unfair to make somebody stay right till the end. I’m glad he’ll have time to retire.”

Collins said he opposes setting an age limit that forces a pope to retire. Each pope should be left to decide what is best for him and the church, he said after a noontime service at St. Michael’s Cathedral.

Benedict leaves a church in turmoil in Europe and North America. Since his election in 2005, progressive priests have launched open revolts against Benedict’s concentration of power in Rome. Vocations to the priesthood are drying up and sex abuse scandals revealed a hierarchy often more interested in protecting the institution than protecting children.

Pedophile priests preyed on victims well before Benedict became pope. But victims’ groups have accused him of being part of the coverup because, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, he spent more than two decades heading the Vatican department responsible for investigating the crimes. The latest scandal broke last month in Los Angeles, where Roger Cardinal Mahony was stripped of all public duties after thousands of pages were released indicating that church officials tried to shield pedophile priests from the law.

As Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, his hardline approach to doctrine on controversial issues such as contraception, the ordination of women and allowing priests to marry attracted labels like “Cardinal No” and “God’s Rottweiler.” As pope, he then shocked progressive priests by starting negotiations to bring the ultra-conservative Society of St. Pius X, and one of its Holocaust-denying bishops, back into the Roman Catholic Church.

Routhier expects the clash between progressives and conservatives to play out when cardinals meet to elect a new pope, even though most cardinals are squarely in the conservative camp, including Marc Cardinal Ouellet, the Quebecer often cited as one of the front-runners to succeed Benedict.

“There will surely be tensions during the conclave and it will be over what ideological orientation we should take,” Routhier says.

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